Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the effects of feeding three kinds of testdiets (Solid, powdered and liquid types) on maternal rats and its effect on the serum andliver lipids metabolism of their 10 day old sucklings and 10 weeks old growing rats. These test diets were formulated such that the ratio of food components used was thesame. The maternal rats fed cholesterol-enrich solid diet exhibited lower total serumcholesterol and free-cholesterol, although serum HDL-cholesterol and triacylglycerolconcentration were similar in the three groups (i. e. solid, powdered and liquid type fedrats). The contents of liver cholesterol and triacylgylcerol in three groups were not significantlydifferent. Similar observation have been made comparing serum to totalcholesterol levels in adult rats aged 10 weeks and suckling rats aged 10 days. Fatty acids composition in stomach of suklings born by solid diet fed maternal rats containedsignificantly higher percentage of oleic acid and unsaturated fatty acids than thosefed with powdered or liquid diet. The group fed with liquid diet gave the highest glucose and insulin levels, while groupfed with solid diet demonstrated the least levels, and powdered diet fed group showed intermediatelevels thus, suggesting that chewing of the solid diet determined the rate ofabsorption.
